Improved device tor aiding combustion in steam-generators



G. W. RAWSON. EEvmE FOR AIDING COMBUSTION IN STEAM GENERATORS.

Patented Sept- 7, 1869.

area eW/ianu-ou 6 us llarn z dint-ted fitatea atlatent chitin,

GEORGE w. RAWSON, or OAMBRIDGEPOR-T, nssrcnon TO HIMSELF Ann MICHAELI-llTTINGER,"OF SOMERVILLE, MASSACHUSETTS.

Letters Patent No. 94,512, dated s nemter 7, 1869.

- IMPROVED DEVICE FOR AIDING- COLKBUSTION IR STEAM-GENERATORS.

The Schedule referred to in these Letters Patent and making part of thename.

To all persons to whom theta presents may come:

Be it known that I, GEORGE W. RAwsoN, of Gambridgeport, of the county ofMiddlesex, and State 'of Massachusetts, have invented a new and usefulimprovement having reference to the, combustion, in a furnace, of fuel,and the smoke and gases thereof; and Ldo hereby declare the same to befully described in the following specification, and represented in theaccompanying drawings, of which- Figure 1 is a top view,

Figure 2 is a side elevation, and

Figure 3, a front-end elevation of a locomotiveengine, boiler, andfurnace, with my invention applied thereto.

- Figure 4 is a transverse section taken through the blower.

Figure 5 is a longitudinal section of the boiler and furnace.

In carrying out my invention, I provide the chimney or eduction-pipe aof a furnace, A, with a valve or damper, b, which I arrange over themouth of a pipe, 0, leading out of such chimney to the middl'c part ofone end of thescase (l of a fan-blower, B, the blast or fan-wheel ofwhich is shown at e.

The eduction-pipe f of such blower I lead into the aslmhamber g of thefurnace A. Furthermore, I provide the opposite head of ,thc blowerrcasewith one or more air-induction openings, h, having a register orclosing-valve, it.

Under this state. of things, if we suppose fuel to be in combustion onthe grate k of the furnace, the

damper of the chimney to be closed, the blOWCl WllGBl to be put in rapidrevolution, and the air-register of the blower-case to be partially orproperly opened, as the case may require, the smoke, gases, and lightcarbonaceous matters, which would otherwise escape by the chimney, willbe drawn through the pipe 0 into the blower-case, and there be mixedwith'air, also drawn'therein by the fan-wheel, and with such will bedriven into the ash-chamber andup through the grate and into the mass offuel therein.

The smoke and most, if not all the gases, and the.

lighter carbonaceous matters thus returned to the fuel will be burnedthereby, and thus utilized, or made to contribute to heating the boiler,or whatever the furnace may be applied to.

This invention has been in operation with highly advantageous resultswith a glass-furnace, that is, a furnace used for producing glass in amolten state.

When the invention is in operation, it not only supplies the furnacewith the air necessary to the combus tion of the fuel, but it causes thesmoke and gases escaping from the fuel to be returned to it and forcedin contact with or through it until they are finally consumed. Therewill be little or no smoke issuing from the top of the chimney.

The result of the application of my said invention to the glass-thrnacehas been that by the consumption of three tons of cool, I could beat thepots far more efiectually than they could be by eight tons of coal usedwithout such invention.

\Vhen the invention is in use, the furnace-doors are to be closed.Instead of the air being let directly into the blower-case,-in manner asabove explained, it may be let into the smoke-conduit leading into suchcase.

The advantages of introducing the air into the blowercase is that suchair will abstract heat from the case and wheel, and thus operate toprevent them, of e'it-lr of them from being burned by the hot smoke andgases. The heat so abstracted will be carried back into the fuel, andthus .be utiiized.

I do not claim the mere combination of a blowe with a furnace, so as toblow air aloneinto it, or it ash-chamber; nor do I claim the arrangementof a blast-wheel within the smoke-chamber of a furnace, and providingsuch furnace and smoke-chamber with a conduit to lead from thesmoke-chamber to the ashcharnber of the furnace, the whole being asrepresented in 0. Hopkins application for a patent rejected April 12,1867.

I arrange my blower-case and its conduits wholly outside of and distinctfrom the furnace and its smokechamber, in consequence of which theblast-wheel is better protected from the action of the flame, and thefurnace can be kept in operation while the blower-case is being openedfor effecting repair of the wheel, or other purpose.

Besides the above, my improvement has other advantages.

I claim, thcrefin'e, the air-blast wheel and its case, 11, as arrangedoutside of and separate from the furnace, and connected therewith bymeans of a conduit,

f, opening into the ash-chamber g, and also by a conduit, 0, opening outof the chimney or discharge-flue of the furnace, as set forth.

GEORGE W. RAWSON.

Witnesses: v

R. H. EDDY, SAMUEL N. Prrnn.

